I'm actually having a hard time coming up with who I consider to be the leading public intellectuals living today. The readings just seem to be further confusing me on what exactly a public intellectual is. When I hear public intellectual, I think of people from the past rather than the present. Machiavelli, Marx, Locke, and all those other intellectuals we read so much about. To me, people like Stephen Colbert, Bill Nye, and Muhammad Yunus. These are individuals that definitely direct their work toward the general public. They are very accessible and work hard to keep their work understandable.
Jackie, this sounds really intriguing! I grew up with dogs and we never would have even thought to crop their ears or dock their tails. It seems absolutely unnecessary and cruel to me, so I think we're on the same page, but it might be interesting to hear why someone supports such things.
ReplyDeleteI had little to no experience with cats growing up because my dad and brother are both very allergic. Still to this day, it scares me a bit to be around cats because I find their behavior to be a lot more unpredictable than dogs'. My partner has two cats that are great and they are NOT declawed, though, honestly, I think I prefer to be around cats that are because of my fear of their unpredictability. I've heard that declawing a cat is similar to removing a person's finger tips are the first knuckle, which sounds incredibly cruel when put that way, but again, I'd be interested in learning more on both sides of that debate!